Kill or Be Killed

Here's this boy saying,

"my grandmother shot me. Help me."

And the dispatcher was trying to reassure him

That help was on the way.

There's a pause.

And then you hear more shots.

- As a dispatcher were still connected,

West bloomfield township police showed up.

- We have one of the dashcams from officer tash's car.

As he gets out of the car, you can see him duck

Because they were hearing gunshots within the house.

Officer lamb could see someone moving across

Through a picture window towards the door.

He gave verbal commands to place any weapons down

And to come out with her hands up.

Then he makes contact with the shooter,

Who was eventually identified as sandra layne.

Laid at her feet

Is the firearm used during the shooting.

And then immediately, she said,

"I murdered my grandson."

- When officers got to the condo,

74-year-old sandra layne was inside.

And she remarked to them that,

"I think I just murdered my grandson."

- She said it more than a few times.

- It wasn't screaming. It wasn't wailing.

It was pretty matter of fact,

"I think I just murdered my grandson."

- Police ask sandra layne why she shot her grandson,

But she's confused, in shock, and doesn't respond.

At 5:35 p.M., approximately two minutes

After the police arrive on the scene,

Officers cuff sandra layne and put her in the car

While they begin their search for the victim,

Who sandra identifies as her 17-year-old grandson

Jonathan hoffman.

- The initial entrance into the house was,

Um, chilling.

The house was almost filled with a haze or a smoke

From a gun fired multiple times.

When the officers make their way upstairs to the loft,

They find jonathan hoffman laid out on the ground

Face down in a pair of gym shorts, socks only,

With multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso.

Given the amount of blood,

They can't believe that he has a faint pulse.

So he is immediately transported to the hospital.

- While jonathan hoffman is rushed to the hospital,

The condo is secured for evidence retrieval.

- This was a pretty extensive crime scene

In my experience, in that you had

A three-level residence.

Nearly every room had some blood in it.

The bloodstain patterns indicate actions

And direction and location

Of where people may have traveled throughout the scene.

There were footprints that led down the stairs

And in the basement.

The more they're mobile,

The more blood you typically see.

- There were ten bullet casings

Scattered throughout the house.

The drywall was shot.

There was a gun case and ammunition

Found on two different floors.

- Everything, including sandra,

Is photographed.

While sandra is in the patrol car,

Officers try to gather information from her.

But she is in such hysterics

That she can't provide them with clear answers.

- Officers said that ms. Layne was upset

She shot her grandson.

She cried.

- While the police continue to try

And get answers from sandra layne,

Her husband and jonathan's step-grandfather,

Fred layne, returns home.

Fred tells police he couldn't have been gone even an hour.

- Fred layne was not in the house at the time.

Sandra had told him to go and take their dog for a walk.

- When he came back, fred was shocked.

He was unaware that sandra had shot jonathan.

Police discovered jonathan's parents moved to arizona

And left him here,

Supposedly to finish high school.

And that's why he was living with his grandmother.

At 6:02 p.M.,

Jonathan loses the fight for his life

And is pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Now police have the difficult task

Of alerting jonathan's family,

Who are currently living in arizona,

That he's been killed

And that the admitted shooter is his grandmother.

Jonathan's mother and sandra's daughter,

Jennifer, is in complete shock.

I'm like, what? Why?

If you're a parent, can you imagine hearing that?

It plays over in your head a lot.

Nobody would ever think

Their parent is gonna kill their grandchild.

Grandmothers are supposed to love

And cherish their grandkids.

He was my first child,

And now he's gone.

- Two hours after the 911 call,

Investigators continued to collect evidence at the scene.

In the meantime, as a precaution

Due to sandra's advanced age,

She's taken to the hospital for an evaluation

Under the watchful eye of police officers.

And she finally starts talking.

In the emergency room,

She told police that he did not hurt her,

That he was a good boy;

He wouldn't have hurt anyone.

- So why would sandra layne fatally shoot

Her 17-year-old grandson?

How did it get to that point?

- Sandra layne is medically cleared,

And just after midnight,

Transported to the police station.

But before continuing her conversation

With investigators, she meets with her lawyer,

Jerry sabbota.

- She's fragile, she's scared, and she's upset.

And she feels tremendous sorrow.

This was a case that was extremely different

From the run-of-the-mill, because you're not talking

About a robbery where there's a shooting.

You're not talking about a situation

Where somebody hired someone to kill somebody.

This was a grandmother alleged to have shot

And killed her grandson.

I couldn't fathom it because I had nice relationships

With my grandmothers.

And so what could cause her to react this way?

- At the station, with her lawyer

And investigators present, sandra tells a new story,

And it differs wildly from what she said at the hospital.

- Sandra now claimed jonathan attacked her,

That there had been a struggle.

- She said they got into some type of beef.

And it wasn't just a disagreement.

There was yelling, and there was screaming.

"and he kicked me in the abdomen.

"I feared for my life. I feared for my safety.

So I got the gun."

Jonathan wasn't big at all,

But he was still bigger than sandra layne.

And for a 74-year-old grandmother,

That gun...

It was the equalizer.

- Because there were no witnesses

Other than sandra layne,

The police had a challenge.

- Because sandra is now claiming self-defense,

Investigators have to be sure that they're not throwing

A frail 74-year-old grandmother into a jail cell,

Especially if she was defending herself

From a horrible attack.

The police take a closer look

At the photos taken at the scene.

- Multiple photos were taken of sandra--

Of her hands, her face, her arms.

And there was no sign of any violence

That had been done to her,

Not even a scratch.

Here's an elderly woman claiming self-defense.

But in a self-defense situation,

There would be signs of a struggle.

Maybe, just maybe,

Jonathan hoffman wasn't the aggressor.

Maybe, just maybe, you are not looking

At a typical 74-year-old grandmother.

- People tended to blame the parents.

- My whole family sided with her.

- Jonathan had substance abuse issues.

- Sandra layne was afraid of him.

- She felt it's kill or be killed.

- Two days after claiming to have killed her grandson,

Jonathan hoffman, in self-defense,

Sandra layne is arraigned in district court.

Police and the court are not buying her self-defense plea,

And she's held without bond.

- Sandra layne was saying jonathan threatened her,

And he kicked her in the abdomen,

And that she feared for her safety,

And she was protecting herself.

While she sits in jail

Awaiting her preliminary hearing,

Prosecutor paul walton starts looking at the evidence

And putting together the state's case

That sandra committed murder.

- The case first came on my radar

The day that it happened.

Any time that we had a homicide

That occurred in oakland county,